| Volume 2, Number 4, 
| Volume 2 Number 3, 
| Volume 2 No. 2, 
| Volume 2 No. 1 
| Volume 1 No. 4, 
| Volume 1 No. 3, 
| Volume 1 No. 2 
| Volume 1 Number 1 
By Tony Newman, Drug Policy Alliance
PHOTO: HONORED — DPA’s executive director Ethan Nadelmann and Board member Pam Lichty with Montel Williams on the night of his award. West Coast Leaf photo
The International Drug Policy Reform Conference, co-hosted by the Drug Policy Alliance (DPA), brought together over 1000 leading international experts, researchers, care providers, policymakers and key activists for a global forum held in Albuquerque, NM Nov. 12-14.
Montel Williams was honored for sharing his own story as a cannabis patient and advocate, thus giving voice to thousands of other patients and caregivers whose struggles don’t make the news. Williams, a household name with a national TV show that was a platform for people to share their personal stories, now hosts the syndicated daily radio show, Montel Across America.
“I utilize medical marijuana to help alleviate the extreme neuralgic pain I suffer from,” Williams said. “I am not alone. There are thousands of patients like me, and we should not be treated as criminals.”
Williams, who suffers from multiple sclerosis, uses cannabis to relieve chronic nerve pain. He received the biennial Edward Brecher Award for Achievement in the Field of Journalism Nov. 13. The award from the DPA, the nation’s leading organization promoting policy alternatives to the Drug War, gives the award to media figures with the courage and leadership to question official drug war propaganda.
Since going public with his story in late 2003, Williams has tirelessly campaigned for changes in state and federal laws to expand access. Climbing Higher, his 2004 autobiography, detailed his struggle with MS and the therapeutic effects of cannabis.
Williams has hosted TV shows on the topic, authored op-ed pieces in major newspapers and used his platform as a public figure to press legislators across the country to enact new drug policies based on compassion, reason and science. He has traveled to state capitals in Albany, NY and Trenton, NJ and to Washington, D.C. to urge elected officials to pass legislation.
“Montel is in a league of his own insofar as the effort to legalize medical marijuana is concerned,” said Ethan Nadelmann, DPA executive director (drugpolicy.org). “No one has used his media pulpit as effectively and passionately as he has in combating drug war intransigence.”
Previous recipients include: ABC News Anchor Hugh Downs, Cartoonist Gary Trudeau, The Economist magazine, Rolling Stone magazine, New Yorker staff writer William Finnegan and Eric Schlosser, author of Fast Food Nation and Reefer Madness, among other distinguished honorees.
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